


Constancy

by inelegantly (Lir)



Series: SWAG 2016 Fills [8]
Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cohabitation, Domestic, Established Relationship, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 01:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5892625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lir/pseuds/inelegantly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a storm blowing outside, the power is down, the heat is out, it's just them and candles and blankets... and Akira and Hikaru are still playing Go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Constancy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [psiten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/psiten/gifts).



> The prompt this was written from is exactly as the summary says, and it was a joy to write. Quiet, domestic moments between characters are my bread and butter.

-

Akira is the one to find the candles because even though they'd only moved into the apartment a scant couple of months before, of course Hikaru cannot remember where any of their belongings happened to get put. They're in one of the narrow kitchen drawers, a location Akira maps out by feel, padding silently through the chilly, darkened apartment. 

Even if he wasn't light on his feet, the sound of the thunder outside and of the rain pouring down and impacting against the building's wall, would have been enough to drown out the worst of his noise.

"Touya!" Hikaru calls from the other room. "What's _taking_ so long?" 

" _Nothing,_ " Akira shoots back, a bit more sharply than he had intended. The candles are in his hand and his eyes have more or less adjusted to the dark; the matches are in another drawer but he fishes those out within another minute and then that's everything he'd come for. 

Akira walks back out toward the other room before announcing: "If you were in so much of a hurry, _you_ could have gotten them. But you didn't know where they were, so the least you can do is be patient." 

Even in the dimness Akira can make out the shape of Hikaru's sheepish smile, all bright teeth winking out of the gloom and scrunched-up cheeks penning it in. Akira sits down beside him, setting one of the candles on their coffee table and striking a match. It sizzles and flares alight, and Hikaru's face becomes visible in the slender glow of the matchlight. 

"This is _boring,_ " Hikaru protests. "Didn't we pay a lot of money to rent this place? The least they could do is make sure the power stays on when it's storming!" 

"Things like this happen sometimes," Akira says, as he shakes the match out. He lights a second candle from the first, and spaces it farther along the table. The third candle, he lights before setting off to the side on one of the end tables bracketing the sofa. 

It's not much, but by candlelight, Akira can make out the way Hikaru is shivering on the floor. 

"You wouldn't be cold," he adds, sniffing with disdain that he fears is far more likely _concern,_ "if you dressed more warmly than that." 

" _I wouldn't be cold,_ " Hikaru shoots back, "if the heat was on in the apartment! But it's not. So just... Gimme the blanket. If we can't do anything else, I want to play a game." 

Hikaru is already reaching for the goban, tucked away underneath one of the tables in their main living space. Akira could be offended that Hikaru just _trusts_ he'll grab the blankets and what, bundle Hikaru up like he's an infant? He wants to be offended, but when the fact of the matter is that he very much will, expending that much energy on irritation begins to feel beside the point. 

"That's the first sensible thing you've said since the lights went out," he can't help himself from commenting all the same, as he takes an afghan down from where he'd spread it across the back of the couch a week earlier. He spreads it around Hikaru's shoulders, and finds himself smiling. 

"Come here," Hikaru says, holding up one arm so the afghan spreads and he appears like a bat, banking on the wing in the darkness. "We can play from the same side of the board, come on." 

Akira resists for a moment, standing over Hikaru with his arms just twitching to rise up and cross. But then he relents, folding his knees under himself and sliding toward the wing of the blanket Hikaru is offering him. Hikaru drapes the blanket edge around Akira's shoulders, and tucks his arm not-so-sneakily around Akira's waist. 

"And I suppose we're going to play Go one-handed, too, and not simply while sitting side by side?" he asks. 

"You don't need more than one hand to place the stones," Hikaru says, grinning cheekily at him from a breath away. 

Akira rolls his eyes, but uses the arm not wedged against Hikaru's side to scoot his stones closer to himself across the floor. When he lifts the lid, he finds that he's picked white. Hikaru peers down at the stones over Akira's shoulder, and grins. 

"That means I'm black!" he declares. His hand is already diving into his go-ke and plucking out a stone, slapping it down on the top-right star point. 

Akira is slower, in making his move. It's strange to be seeing things with the same perspective Hikaru has, when that isn't usually the case in a game — strange, but not in a way that should affect either of their play. What does put him off-balance is that it's his dominant arm sandwiched against Hikaru's side, and familiar though he might be with the stones, his off hand is clumsier in ferrying one to the place he desires to set it on the board. 

"Maybe we could make this more exciting," Hikaru suggests, making his next move and trading back to Akira. "Maybe we could play strip-Go! Do you think it would work, if you took something off every time one of your stones got captured?" 

" _Shindou,_ " Akira shoots back. "It's already freezing in here, do you really want to be wearing _less_ clothing?" 

The truth of that hits Hikaru hard enough for him to laugh, an awkward burst of giggling as he shakes his head and makes his next play as soon as Akira has deposited his stone on the board. The game is developing, and though Akira is much used to the opening game with Hikaru, it's past those first few well-practiced moves that each of their playing begins to get interesting. Despite himself, for all that it's dark, and cold, and Hikaru has his arm around his waist in a way that is _thoroughly_ distracting, Akira finds himself investing in the play.

"I guess we shouldn't do that," Hikaru agrees at some length, having forgotten the flow of conversation in favor of Go. "It's not like a game with you needs to be much more exciting, anyway."

"Shindou," Akira says again, softer this time. 

It's an offhand compliment, probably not even intentional. But the fact that Hikaru says it that way — unthinking, like it isn't flattery so much as just, the state of their world — affects Akira far more than if Hikaru had made a deliberate attempt at flustering him. 

"What?" Hikaru says. "It's true, isn't it?" 

Akira breathes out through close-pressed lips, straining his eyes to study the board by candlelight. It's a stalling technique, because every move they both have played is fresh and bright in his head, and he can recall the places of all the stones on the board from memory yet. He feigns thinking less because he needs the moment, and more because he values his pride too much to reply too soon. 

"I suppose it is," Akira says, when he's allowed a due moment to pass between them in silence. "I rarely have games more possessing than the ones where you're the opponent sitting across from me at the board."

"Only when I'm sitting across from you?" Hikaru jokes. "So does that mean you're going to underestimate me this time?" 

"Not a chance," Akira shoots back, tapping a stone down hard upon the board. "I'll play you just the same as I always have." 

"Good," Hikaru says. "I wouldn't like it nearly as much, if you did anything else."

-

-


End file.
